From schools to colleges, Andhra Pradesh incentivises education for students & parents

Ever since Jaganmohan Reddy stormed to power in Andhra Pradesh last year, he promised radical reforms in education sector. w state is going all out to incentivise school and college education. In a bid to revolutionise educational services to underprivileged, state has adopted a rar peculiar model embedded with a plethora of welfare schemes. 

One of first welfare programmes anunced by chief minister Jaganmohan Reddy is flagship ‘Amma Vodi’ (mor’s lap) scheme which caters to students at every level of ir education all way till professional courses. Under ‘Amma Vodi’, mors from marginalised sectors will receive an amount of Rs 15,000 per annum for sending ir wards to school. Students between class 1 and 12 hailing from all recognised government, private aided, private unaided school or junior colleges including residential institutions are eligible to be beneficiaries under this scheme. government says that thought behind this scheme is to encour parents belonging to marginalised sector to send ir kids to study. A total of 42,33,098 mors are benefitting from this scheme as on date.

When it comes to students beyond class 12, government has t one but two schemes on offer. first, ‘Jagannana Vidya Deevena’ (Jagananna Education Blessing), is a refurbished version of scheme that present CM’s far, YS Rajasekhara Reddy introduced. scheme was called ‘Fee Reimbursement’ until it was reintroduced by present government after making a few vital changes. Previously, reimbursement cap was fixed at Rs 35,000 irrespective of course fee whereas new scheme covers 100% of college fee even if it exceeds Rs 35,000. Previously fee was directly paid by government to college establishments which led to college manments neglecting students under scheme and abstaining from ramping up facilities due to delay in payments. But this problem has w been rectified. In a revolutionary decision, CM anunced that every quarter, fee amount will be credited into bank accounts of mors of students directly instead of being paid to colleges. This, according to government, gives parents a chance to hold college accountable apart from ensuring that payments are made on time giving manments scope to be complacent. A total of 18,51,043 students are benefitting from this scheme as per government records.

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A major concern that parents hailing from mainly from rural landscape of Andhra Pradesh had was cost of accommodation that y would have to endure if ir kids wished to travel to a nearby city to pursue higher education as ‘fee reimbursement’ scheme did t cover same. second scheme catering to students pursuing higher education solved this problem. Under 'Jagananna Vasathi Deevena’, government is extending financial assistance of Rs 10,000 to ITI students, Rs 15,000 to polytechnic students and Rs 20,000 to degree students to help m cope with ir accommodation costs and or miscellaneous expenditure. A mammoth 15,56,956 students are receiving this assistance.  A scheme called ‘Videsi Vidya Deevena’ is also being run for extending financial aid to students who wish to pursue ir higher education abroad.

Apart from advancing financial assistance to students and incentivising education, AP government has taken giant steps towards improving standard of education at government institutions. Under a scheme called ‘Nadu-Nedu’ (n-w), government is revamping every single government educational institution in state, 15,715 schools which have been taken up in first phase of this mega drive are expected to be ready by last week of August. From hygienic conditions to new benches to new buildings to new English labs, government has come up with a list of nine essentials which have to be mandatorily taken care of.

Though re has been a lot of controversies around making English medium education mandatory in government schools, a lot of experts have lauded government for this move. Opening up new opportunities for students hailing from government institutions, which orwise would have been out of ir grasp primarily due to lack of langu proficiency, is thought behind this move, according to top leadership of government. 

Ever since advent of exorbitant corporate colleges in two Telugu speaking states, cracking competitive exams without being trained by someone seemed impossible for someone hailing from a government institution. Putting an end to this issue, government recently anunced that special coaching for competitive exams like IIT-JEE, langu proficiency tests like GRE and TOEFL will be given in government schools and colleges. government is also mulling supplying iPads to students above class 8 and same was discussed in a recent review meeting chaired by chief minister. government has also come up with a plan to counsel students from class 8.

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